Citadel: Diana - Split in Two

Set in the same world as Citadel, but focused on different characters and set in the near-future several years after events that still haven't been fully explored yet, the opening episode of Citadel: Diana introduces us to Manticore Italy Agent Diana Cavalieri (Matilda De Angelis) who, with her partner (Marouane Zotti), is sent to spy on a meeting between agents from other divisions while the leaders of the European Manticore divisions also about the future of the Italian branch. The discovery of an exchange of a powerful weapon forces Diana's hand to make a reckless decision which leads to the end of her partnership and her altering the series of events to her bosses.

As all this is going on we also get a story involving Edo Zani (Lorenzo Cervasio), the heir to Manticore Italy which is still in the doghouse given his father's (Maurizio Lombardi) actions putting the Italian branch in a timeout (so to speak). Offered a chance by a rival to shakeup the status quo within Manticore, although in an alliance he's not sure he can exactly trust, Edo looks for an alternative, and, in the final moments of the episode, that's exactly what Diana will deliver opening the door to the relationship key to series.

The episode does an okay job introducing separate key characters, although the chaotic opening (full of a mass dump of plot in subtitles) leaves somethin to be desired. However, the episode does pick up as it moves forward to the revelation that Diana is a Citadel agent (recruited after the Zani family and Manticore killed her parents) and has been working as a mole within Manticore for years (with some questionable taste in clothes and what someone thought a "futuristic" hairstyle might look like). Far more European feeling that the original series, with the vast majority of dialogue in Italian, the first episode doesn't knock it out of the park, or provide the stylish opening of the first Citadel series, but it does eventually get us to a story that might be worth seeing play out.

• Title: Citadel: Diana - Split in Two
• IMDb: link